Bucknell 46, Boston University 29: Bison Big Men Too Much For Terriers Inside

Playing without speedy point guard D.J. Irving, Boston University thought they might struggle to keep up with Bucknell?s guards, it turns out the Bison?s forwards were the guys they should have been worried about.

Junior forwards Joe Willman and Mike Muscala combined for 27 points and eight rebounds for Bucknell as the Bison hold a 46-29 lead at the break. Willman has 17 points already and Muscala, the reigning Patriot League Player of the Year, is well on his way to a double-double with 10 points and seven rebounds.

Terrier forward Dom Morris leads the team with eight points and fellow sophomore Travis Robinson added six points on two early 3-pointers. Despite shooting 54 percent from the field in the half, the Terriers trail by 17 because of a weak showing on the boards and on defense.

The Bison knocked down 64 percent of their shots from the field in the first half and out-rebounded the Terriers 18-5. While the Terriers failed to grab one offensive rebound, Bucknell pulled down six in the first half and turned them in to 10 second chance points.

Irving was ruled out of the gam after he suffered a concussion in last Tuesday?s game against Villanova. He practiced with the team Wednesday after sitting out for a week but still showed symptoms.

Source: http://boston.sbnation.com/2011/12/22/2656448/bucknell-46-boston-university-29-bison-big-men-too-much-for-terriers

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Associate Vice President, Human Resources (AVP) - Wayne State University - Detroit, MI

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Source: http://jobs.recruitingblogs.com/c/job.cfm?site_id=6155&jb=9280094

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Chinese fossils shed light on the evolutionary origin of animals from single-cell ancestors

Press release issued 22 December 2011

Evidence of the single-celled ancestors of animals, dating from the interval in the Earth?s history just before multicellular animals appeared, has been discovered in 570 million-year-old rocks from South China by researchers from the University of Bristol, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, the Paul Scherrer Institut and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.

All life evolved from a single-celled universal common ancestor, and at various times in Earth history, single-celled organisms threw their lot in with each other to become larger and multicellular, resulting, for instance, in the riotous diversity of animals.? However, fossil evidence of these major evolutionary transitions is extremely rare.

The fossils, reported this week in Science, preserve stages in the life cycle of an amoeba-like organism dividing in asexual cycles, first to produce two cells, then four, eight, 16, 32 and so on, ultimately resulting in hundreds of thousands of spore-like cells that were then released to start the cycle over again.? The pattern of cell division is so similar to the early stages of animal (including human) embryology that until now they were thought to represent the embryos of the earliest animals.

The researchers studied the microscopic fossils using high energy X-rays at the Swiss Light Source in Switzerland, revealing the organisation of the cells within their protective cyst walls.? The organisms should not have been fossilized ? they were just gooey clusters of cells ? but they were buried in sediments rich in phosphate that impregnated the cell walls and turned them to stone.

Lead author Therese Huldtgren said: ?The fossils are so amazing that even their nuclei have been preserved.?

Co-author Dr John Cunningham said: ?We used a particle accelerator called a synchrotron as our X-ray source.? It allowed us to make a perfect computer model of the fossil that we could cut up in any way that we wanted, but without damaging the fossil in any way.? We would never have been able to study the fossils otherwise!?

Video showing 570 million year old multicellular spore body fossilised while undergoing vegetative nuclear and cell division.? The computer model is based on on synchrotron x-ray tomographic microscopy of these tiny fossils recovered from rocks in South China.? Courtesy of Stefan Bengtson, Swedish Museum of Natural History.

This X-ray microscopy revealed that the fossils had features that multicellular embryos do not, and this led the researchers to the conclusion that the fossils were neither animals nor embryos but rather the reproductive spore bodies of single-celled ancestors of animals.

Professor Philip Donoghue said: ?We were very surprised by our results ? we?ve been convinced for so long that these fossils represented the embryos of the earliest animals ? much of what has been written about the fossils for the last ten years is flat wrong.? Our colleagues are not going to like the result.?

Professor Stefan Bengtson said: ?These fossils force us to rethink our ideas of how animals learned to make large bodies out of cells.?

The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, the Swedish Research Council, the Paul Scherrer Institut, Ministry of Science and Technology of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and EU FP7.

Paper

Huldtgren, T., Cunningham, J. A., Yin, C., Stampanoni, M., Marone, F., Donoghue, P. C. J. and Bengtson, S. 2011.? ?Fossilized nuclei and germination structures identify Ediacaran ?animal embryos? as encysting protists?? in Science 334.

Therese Huldtgren is a doctoral student at the Department of Palaeozoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, and Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.?

Dr John Cunningham is a Research Associate at the School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, UK.

Professor Chongyu Yin is a Researcher at the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, China.

Professor Marco Stampanoni is Head of X-ray Tomography at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland and Assistant Professor for X-ray Microscopy at the Department for Information Technology and Electrical Engineering of ETH Z?rich, and Institute of Biomedical Engineering of the University of Z?rich and ETH Z?rich.

Dr Federica Marone is a beamline scientist at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland.

Professor Philip Donoghue is Professor of Palaeobiology in the School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, UK

Professor Stefan Bengtson is Professor of Palaeozoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden

Source: http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2011/8126.html

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BOJ keeps policy on hold but cuts economic view (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? The Bank of Japan kept monetary settings unchanged on Wednesday but offered a bleaker view on the economy than last month on mounting evidence of the pain Europe's debt crisis is inflicting on global growth and Japan's recovery prospects.

Slowing exports, worsening business sentiment and soft capital spending are challenging the central bank's view that the world's third-largest economy will recover early next year.

In a sign of the growing damage from the global slowdown, Japan's exports fell at their fastest annual pace in six months in November with shipments to Asia declining on weak demand for semiconductor chips and digital cameras.

The BOJ held off on offering additional monetary stimulus, as widely expected, but cut its economic assessment to say that the pickup in economic activity was pausing due to the effect of slowing overseas growth and the yen's strength.

It also revised down its view on export and output growth to say it is flattening, and sounded slightly more gloomy on the outlook, warning that the economy will resume recovery only after a brief period of stagnation.

"Japan's economy will remain more or less flat for the time being" before resuming a moderate recovery, the central bank said in a statement announcing the policy decision.

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Global interest rates http://link.reuters.com/myt65s

BOJ, Fed balance sheets http://link.reuters.com/nyt65s

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MORE EASING SOON?

Japan's economy rebounded from a recession triggered by the March earthquake and tsunami, but is expected to slow sharply this quarter as the initial spurt driven by companies restoring supply chains and production facilities tails off.

Many in the bank are counting on support for growth from fiscal spending for reconstruction from the March disaster, but that may not be enough to offset weakening overseas demand.

"The bleaker economic assessment is no surprise given slumping exports that show weakness not only in Europe but Asia as well. The BOJ's longer-term forecast of a moderate recovery is subject to skepticism," said Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JPMorgan Securities Japan.

Analysts say the BOJ may ease policy again by March next year with the most likely trigger a renewed spike in the yen or market turmoil caused by Europe's crisis.

"We expect the BOJ to implement additional easing steps in January-March as there is a chance the yen will appreciate further during that period," said Takahide Kiuchi, chief economist at Nomura Securities.

"Another trigger could be a credit rating downgrade for European sovereign debt. If that happens and causes financial market turmoil, coordinated monetary easing with U.S. and European central banks could be a possibility."

Central banks are flooding markets with liquidity as markets remain on edge about Europe's ability to put a floor under a bond market selloff that is pushing borrowing costs for countries such as Italy and Spain towards unsustainable levels.

The Fed has pledged to keep interest rates near zero until mid-2013 and the ECB cut its main interest rate to a record low this month, as the fallout from Europe's debt crisis stoked fears of a global economic slump.

The BOJ, too, has kept rates virtually at zero and eased policy in October by topping up its asset buying scheme to ease the pain from sharp yen rises on the export-reliant economy.

It stood pat since then but has expressed its readiness to inject huge amounts of liquidity in market operations and loosen monetary policy to fend off any contagion from Europe as it sees a global credit crunch as a real potential risk.

(Additional reporting by Rie Ishiguro, Kaori Kaneko and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Joseph Radford and Chris Gallagher)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/bs_nm/us_japan_economy_boj

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Common gets through 'low point' to record 9th CD (AP)

NEW YORK ? Most people are excited before recording a new album, but Common didn't particularly feel that way.

He says before making his ninth album, "The Dreamer, the Believer," he was at a low point musically.

"I hadn't figured out what I was going to do, what label I was going to work with," he said. "I wasn't inspired."

Common had major success with 2005's "Be" and "Finding Forever," which came two years later. The albums reached gold status and each earned multiple Grammy nominations, including a win for best rap performance by a duo or group for "Southside" with Kanye West. Both albums were mainly produced by West.

But 2008's "Universal Mind Control," produced by the Neptunes, was a commercial disappointment, only selling 245,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan; the CD, however, did earn a Grammy nomination for best rap album.

But Common parted ways with Universal Music, where he's released five of his nine albums.

Now, on Warner Bros. Records, the rapper said he's got his mojo back, mainly thanks to producer and longtime friend No I.D.

"He was willing to be like, `Yo, let's go! Let's get it. Let's go get on this hip-hop,'" Common recalled. "So I think that meant a lot to me and from there we just continued to grow."

The album, released Tuesday, features Nas, Maya Angelou, John Legend and Makeba Riddick. The 39-year-old says the disc embarks on "real, traditional, new hip-hop."

_____

Online:

http://www.thinkcommon.com/

_____

Mesfin Fekadu covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/musicmesfin

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_en_ot/us_music_common

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Christopher Hitchens death is no reason to avoid criticism of him (Pickled Politics)

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Poll: Most Americans want payroll tax extension (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Most Americans want Congress to vote to continue the payroll tax reduction, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll that comes as Democrats and Republicans wrestle over whether to extend the cut through 2012.

It's the latest instance in which lawmakers on Capitol Hill have allowed partisan sniping to hold up a measure to put in place a policy that most Americans support, like ending the Bush tax cuts, cap and trade, and a surcharge on millionaires.

The dragged-out debate over whether to extend an expiring payroll tax reduction is one of many developments that have kept voters furious with their leaders all year. On the brink of the 2012 presidential and congressional elections, virtually all Americans are disappointed and frustrated with the political scene and nearly 6 in 10 say they are angry, the AP-GfK survey showed.

"It seems like there are parties that only want to get their agenda done," said liquor store owner James Jacobsen, 47, of East Hartford, Conn. "They're catering to special interests and not Americans. They are not representing the individual American."

Nearly 6 in 10 respondents say they want Congress to pass the extension, according to the poll. Letting the payroll tax break expire would cost a family making $50,000 about $1,000.

Yet, Republicans and Democrats are rejecting each other's proposals and trying to make law from what's left, a tactic they've used all year on debates over the budget and the nation's debt. The stalemates have caused a decline in confidence so severe that 15 percent of all adults and 32 percent of political independents say they don't trust either party to manage the federal budget deficit.

Economic discontent has spilled over into the political sphere all year and could influence the 2012 presidential and congressional elections. Occupy Wall Street and other protests against inequality have grabbed some attention from politicians, with Democrats the most supportive. Last week, a group of demonstrators camped out on the National Mall, crashed stately holiday parties and marched on Capitol Hill, demanding that Congress extend the payroll tax and insurance for the long-term unemployed.

On the payroll tax deduction, 58 percent of respondents said they want Congress to extend the break, while 35 percent want it to expire.

Democrats and independents are the strongest supporters of continuing the tax cut, while Republicans were evenly divided. But the difference is more partisan than ideological: Conservatives supported an extension, 54 percent to the 42 percent who prefer to let the reduction expire.

Those with annual incomes below $50,000 more strongly support the extension compared with higher-income respondents, and seniors were more likely than younger adults to back the extension.

On Wednesday, there was little sign Congress was listening.

Democrats who control the Senate rejected a GOP-ruled House plan to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, but only with cuts to spending and sped-up approval of an oil pipeline. The Senate is crafting its own proposal in response.

If an agreement is not reached by the end of the year, payroll taxes will jump on Jan. 1 from this year's 4.2 percent back to their normal level of 6.2 percent.

Americans are virtually out of patience, the polling shows. And their distrust crosses party lines.

"I really don't feel that they are having the best interests of us as a people," said Rogersville, Tenn., resident Andrea Stafford, 38, a single mother of two who has been unemployed since the summer.

"And when I say people," she added, "I don't mean millionaires and government officials. I'm talking about the normal person who gets up and fixes their children's lunch and has to take off work when their child is sick because we don't have nannies."

The AP-GfK poll found congressional approval near its all-time low and nearly all Americans disappointed with politics. Eighty-four percent of the respondents disapproved of the way Congress is doing its job, with at least 8 in 10 Republicans, Democrats and independents feeling that way.

As for how to balance the federal budget, more now favor cutting government services as the best means to bring federal spending into balance. Sixty percent think lawmakers should focus on budget cuts over tax increases. That figure had been as low as 53 percent in August, during the showdown over raising the country's debt limit.

The biggest shift on that question has come from independents. In the August poll, 37 percent said lawmakers should focus on increasing taxes and 42 percent said cutting services. Now, that divide stands at 28 percent for raising taxes and 59 percent for cutting services.

The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted Dec. 8-12 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

___

AP Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta, writer Stacy Anderson and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111215/ap_on_go_co/us_ap_poll_congress_payroll_tax

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How the major stock indexes fared on Wednesday (AP)

Stocks sank Wednesday as worries about Europe dragged down financial markets. Energy companies fell hard as the price of crude oil plunged 5 percent. Gold fell below $1,600 for the first time in more than two months.

Italy's borrowing rates ratcheted higher and the euro slid below $1.30 for the first time since January, two signs that the debt crisis continues to pressure Europe's governments. The euro has lost more than 3 percent in three days.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 131.46 points, or 1.1 percent, to close at 11,823.48.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 13.91 points, or 1.1 percent, to 1,211.82.

The Nasdaq fell 39.96, or 1.6 percent to 2,539.31.

For the week:

The Dow is down 360.78 points, or 3 percent.

The S&P is down 43.37, or 3.5 percent.

The Nasdaq is down 107.54, or 4.1 percent.

For the year to date:

The Dow is up 245.97 points, or 2.1 percent.

The S&P is down 45.82, or 3.6 percent.

The Nasdaq is down 113.56, or 4.3 percent.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111214/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street_box

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Sale of Lethal Injection Drug Sodium Thiopental to Be Restricted in Europe (Time.com)

This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global-news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in S?ddeutsche Zeitung.

(BERLIN) -- The European Union is set to restrict the sale to the United States of one of the main active substances needed for lethal injections. According to information obtained by the S?ddeutsche Zeitung, the export of sodium thiopental will only be possible by special permission, beginning Friday, posing a major problem for the US justice system.

The Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) is to publish a new, uniform set of authorized export regulations, valid for all short or intermediate-acting barbituric acids. One of them is the easy-to-use and fast-working anesthetic sodium thiopental, which is used to execute criminals in the states of Ohio and Washington. In 33 other states, sodium thiopental is a key ingredient in other toxic cocktails used to kill inmates. (See TIME's 10 Biggest U.S. News Stories of 2011.)

Approximately 100 people are executed by American authorities every year. But in the past few months, supplies of the drug have become scarce. The only manufacturer based in the US, Hospira, is unwilling to continue to make its product available for lethal injections, and under American law it is not allowed to simply change the injection "recipe." To do that, a complicated approval procedure is required. So authorities -- who have been postponing executions as a result of the difficulty in finding supplies -- have been seeking other sources such as those in the EU.

Anti-death penalty and other human rights groups have pushed for the EU decision to now require special permission to export to countries outside of Europe. The most prominent supporter of the move is Germany's Minister of Economy and head of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Philipp R?sler. In an earlier role as Minister of Health he had written to German manufacturers of sodium thiopental to encourage them not to sell the drug to the US.

After changing jobs, he introduced to the Commission a bill to create a regulation valid Europe-wide that would effectively prevent the export of thiopental to the US. Initially, the proposal met with resistance from other states, but it has now been approved by the majority of the 27 member states.

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Report: Death Penalty Use, Support is Dropping.

After Troy Davis' Execution, a Push for Eyewitness Reform.

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20111216/wl_time/08599210226600

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Morgan Stanley to cut 1,600 jobs in first quarter

Morgan Stanley will cut 1,600 employees in the first quarter, the bank said on Thursday, as it trims costs in a difficult period for trading and banking revenue.

The job cuts will come across all staff levels and geographic areas, spokesman Mark Lake said, including investment banking, trading and back-office functions.

Morgan Stanley is one of the last big Wall Street banks to announce major job cuts as analysts have begun slashing fourth-quarter earnings estimates.

Other banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc have already outlined plans to cut thousands of jobs this year. Morgan Stanley had kept firings limited to several hundred underperforming financial advisers earlier in 2011, but is now extending the cuts to banking and trading.

The cuts represent less than 2 percent of Morgan Stanley's workforce at Sept. 30 and come as the European debt crisis continues to add stress to the markets.

Trading and dealmaking volumes have been hurt by volatile markets. At the same time, the value of securities banks hold for investments, clients or market-making purposes have declined, further hitting revenue and earnings.

Morgan Stanley is likely to report a loss in the fourth quarter, according to analyst reports this week, due to a special $1.2 billion charge the bank announced this week, related to a settlement with the bond insurer MBIA Inc.

Even excluding that charge, Morgan Stanley will earn just 15 cents per share for the fourth quarter, Atlantic Equities analyst Richard Staite predicted in a report on Thursday. That compares with 41 cents per share in the year-ago period.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45683586/ns/business-us_business/

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For pet-owners, holiday plans revolve around pets | Washington ...

Dexter's social calendar this holiday season is chock-full of travel plans, party invites, new clothes, special meals and trips to see Santa Claus.

Highlights for the 3-year-old cocker spaniel and his owner Carol Bryant, of Forty Fort, Pa., include a couple of car trips to look at light displays. A friend drives so Bryant can hold Dexter in the passenger seat as they drive by the lighted homes. "He especially likes the animation and wags his tail," she said.

Like a lot of pet owners, Bryant makes her holiday plans around her dog.

Bryant, the editorial, social media and public relations director for Fido Friendly Magazine, takes photos galore of Dexter in his holiday finest and uses them on Facebook, Twitter, her blog, and in emails to friends and Christmas cards. Their shopping sprees have already begun. Dexter will host a party. His best friend, a golden cocker named Bailey, will host a party. There will be presents to and from Dexter under the Christmas tree. He knows which ones are his and does his own unwrapping.

Bryant hung Dexter's personalized stocking with care. He'll spend Christmas Eve in pajamas and a bathrobe with ducks on it. He will look his brown-and-white best because of a holiday trip to the groomer, and he will dine on lean boiled turkey on Christmas Day.

A recent AP-Petside.com poll found that just over half of American pet owners will buy gifts for their pets this holiday season, and they'll spend an average of $46 on their animals, with toys and treats topping the list. Overall spending in the pet industry (including food, supplies, veterinary care, grooming, boarding and pet sitting) was just over $48 billion in 2010, with over $50 billion in spending projected for 2011, according to the American Pet Products Association.

"It seems many pet owners have accepted that their pets are like children and they enjoy indulging their pet more than ever. It is easier for pet owners to spend on their pets than other relationships in their lives because pets have no expectations," Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Association, said earlier this year.

The Associated Press asked a couple of pet lifestyle experts to describe ways people might celebrate the holiday season with their pets. Some of the answers: Buy your parrot a pinata full of dried fruit. Put a tiny video camera around your cat's neck and let it record some Christmas memories. Or build a holiday dinner around your dog's gluten-free needs.

Some pet stores and shelters host photo fundraisers where you can purchase a picture of your pet in Santa's lap. And photographers who specialize in pets can bring backdrops and lights to your home to take professional shots of your pet and family for keepsakes and cards, Bryant said.

Private chefs can teach you to create menus for human families based on a dog's diet needs, said Jessica Vogelsang, a San Diego veterinarian and author of pawcurious.com. Vogelsang ate ground chicken with cheese and stuffed squash at a recent demonstration by chef Tasha Ardalan from foxytreats.com. Or you can include goodies pets can eat ? like peanut butter treats ? in your holiday baking.

You might want to stock up on breath freshener for pets for this idea from Sandy Robins, an Irvine-based lifestyle consultant for Petco Animal Supplies Inc.: "If you can kiss your two-legged family members under the mistletoe, you can kiss your four-legged family members." Just don't let pets nibble on the mistletoe; it can cause gastrointestinal upsets.

Pets may also be allergic to ingredients in human perfumes, air fresheners, oils and candles, Robins said, but there are pet-friendly versions of some scented products. People who use those might even find themselves wheezing less, she said, because "what's good for pets is good for people."

There is no must-have pet gift this year, but one of the most popular gifts last year was the Snuggie for pets, Robins said, and this year, she expects pajamas will be big sellers. Another trend: Gifts for the senior set ? meaning pets over age 7 ? including infrared massagers and chew toys for those short on teeth, Robins said.

You can also buy a video cam that fits on a collar and let the cat or dog take home movies by the Christmas tree, though Robins acknowledged it might take some serious editing to get to the good stuff.

Petfinder.com is holding its third annual "Foster a Lonely Pet for the Holidays" campaign, hoping to give pets from 1,500 shelters a home stay between Christmas Eve and New Year's. Meanwhile, the goal of the Iams Home 4 the Holidays (IH4TH) drive this year is 1.5 million pet adoptions worldwide.

Finally, there is an endless variety of pet-themed clothing, housewares and accessories for the humans in a dog's life. For bakers, cake, cookie and candy pans come in the shape of bones, dog houses and fire hydrants. Tiffany & Co. sells a sterling silver dog bone charm for a bracelet.

"The apparel and accessory industry is recognizing that not all pet owners want embroidered cardigans or socks," Vogelsang said.

Source: http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/nation/2011/12/pet-owners-holiday-plans-revolve-around-pets/1979096

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On the GOP trail: Romney in Arizona for endorsement by former VP Dan Quayle (Star Tribune)

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Flipboard app launches first international edition in China (Reuters)

SHANGHAI (Reuters) ? Popular Apple iPad news application, Flipboard, said on Tuesday it has partnered with China's Sina Corp and Renren Inc to launch a Chinese edition of the application to woo users in the world's largest Internet market.

Flipboard's chief executive tweeted in May this year that the application, which integrates Facebook, was blocked in China. Beijing fears that unfettered access to the Internet will lead to social instability and thus blocks Facebook and Twitter on the mainland.

However, the Chinese edition of Flipboard, the first international edition for the application, will feature Chinese content and integrate posts shared on Sina's microblog Weibo and status updates from Facebook clone Renren.

"We chose China for our first international edition because we had a unique opportunity to create an amazing experience with Sina and Renren. Also, China has the second largest Apple App Store in the world and it's one of the fastest growing markets for the iPad," said Mike McCue, Flipboard's chief executive in statement posted online. (http://flipboard.com/press/releases/flipboard-china)

Chinese users will be able to download the application from Tuesday, for free from the Apple China App Store.

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Ken Wills)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111206/wr_nm/us_china_flipboard

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US jobless rate fell to 8.6 percent in November

Joshua Lott / Reuters

People wait to be interviewed during a job fair in Phoenix, Ariz., held last month.

By msnbc.com news services

Employment growth picked up speed in November, pushing the nation?s unemployment rate down to 8.6 percent -- its lowest level since March 2009.

The Labor Department reported Friday that nonfarm U.S. payrolls increased by 120,000 last month, accelerating from October?s 80,000 gain and roughly matching analysts? expectations. The U.S. jobless rate fell sharply from the prior month?s 9 percent level.

Private employers added a net gain of 140,000 jobs in November, but governments shed 20,000 jobs, mostly at the local and state level. Governments at all levels have shed nearly a half-million jobs in the past year. The Labor Department revised up its job gains for September and October by 52,000 and 20,000, respectively.

?The labor market is gradually healing. It?s a glacial pace, but we are taking small steps in the right direction,? said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Penn.

More than half the jobs added last month were by retailers, restaurants and bars, a sign that holiday hiring has kicked in. Retailers added 50,000, the sector's biggest gain since April. Restaurants and bars hired 33,000 workers. The health care industry added 17,000.

Still, a worrisome drop in the size of the U.S. workforce means that even with a big decline in the unemployment rate in November, it's still not time to break out the champagne.

The fall in the jobless rate was aided by 315,000 people leaving the workforce. That pushed the participation rate, a ratio of the amount of the population in the labor force, down to 64.0 percent.

Those who exited the workforce, many of whom gave up on looking for work, outnumbered the 278,000 people who found jobs, according the Labor Department's household survey, which is separate from payrolls data.

Even with the recent gains, the economy isn't anywhere close to replacing the jobs lost in the recession. Employers began shedding workers in February 2008 and cut nearly 8.7 million jobs for the next 25 months. Since then, the economy has regained nearly 2.5 million of those jobs.

The jobs report is unlikely to take much pressure off President Barack Obama, whose economic stewardship will face the judgment of voters next November. The outlook for the U.S. economy is also being threatened by Europe's ongoing financial crisis.

Speaking at a Washington, D.C., press event to promote a $4 billion effort to increase the energy efficiency of government and private sector buildings, Obama noted Friday that, despite some ?strong headwinds,? the U.S. private sector has now added jobs for 21 months in a row.

?We need to keep that growth going,? he added.

The relative strength of the jobs report is in keeping with a recent trend, bolstered by upward revisions to the employment counts for September and October. But it is not seen as proving decisive for the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is weighing whether the recovery needs further monetary policy support.

Data ranging from manufacturing to retail sales suggest the pace of expansion could top 3 percent, in contrast to China, where growth is cooling and much of Europe, where growth has stalled.

While the economy's growth pace appears to have accelerated from the third quarter's 2 percent annual rate, Europe's festering debt crisis poses a big threat. At the same time, U.S. fiscal policy is set to tighten in the new year, even if lawmakers extend a payroll tax cut.

Taken together, some analysts believe the headwinds facing the U.S. economy will lead the Fed to ease monetary policy further by buying more bonds.

Though the economy emerged from recession two years ago, about 25 million Americans are either out of work or underemployed, a fact that is hurting Obama's chances of winning a second term.

Analysts say the economy needs to create at least 125,000 jobs every month just to keep the unemployment rate steady. So far this year, job growth has averaged 125,600 jobs a month. At that pace, it would take about 4-1/2 years for employment just to return to where it was when the recession started.

But there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic.

While the government's survey of employers has shown a still tepid pace of job growth, its separate poll of households that is used to calculate the unemployment rate has suggested more-robust jobs gains.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

{"contentId":"9164231","totalVotes":"19612"}

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Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/02/9164231-employment-growth-picked-up-speed-in-november-jobless-rate-falls-to-86-percent

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Merkel: Financial crisis solution to 'take years'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gestures during her speech at the German Federal Parliament, Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gestures during her speech at the German Federal Parliament, Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gestures during her speech at the German Federal Parliament, Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a meeting of the German Federal Parliament, Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

BERLIN (AP) ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel flatly rejected any quick-fix ideas to try to resolve the European financial crisis, telling lawmakers Friday that treaty changes and a stricter fiscal union were the only path forward ? a process could take years.

Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are pushing for a reorganization of existing European Union regulations, in order to ensure the eurozone's long-term stability and win back the trust of markets that have grown jittery over what they view as European dithering.

In laying out to the lower house of Parliament plans she will take to a Dec. 9 EU summit in Brussels, Merkel insisted the 17 nations that use the euro currency need to strengthen European Union institutions and eurozone financial regulations. She called for closer supervision of national budgets, coupled with legal regulations that would allow for stronger enforcement of spending rules.

"The German government has made it clear that the European crisis will not be solved in one fell swoop..." she said. "It's a process, and this process will take years."

Merkel said that because the crisis is above all one of trust, in order to move forward, "we need to do away with the underlying deficiencies in the fiscal and currency union."

"In order to win back trust, we need to do more, where we today have agreements, we need in the future to have legally binding regulations," Merkel said.

The eurozone's current budget rules have been violated about 60 times over the past decade by a number of nations ? including Germany ? but no country has been seriously punished.

To ensure that nations are keeping their budgets in check with the limits of the stability pact ? deficits not more than 3 percent of gross domestic product and overall government debt of not more than 60 percent of GDP ? Germany is pushing for the right to take countries in violation before the European Court of Justice.

"We have to win back that trust that was damaged 60 times," Merkel said.

On Thursday, Sarkozy called for a "refounding and rethinking the organization of Europe." He said that without some new "convergence" among European countries, the continent's crushing debt could destroy the euro. Merkel and Sarkozy are to meet Monday to finalize their joint strategy ahead of next week's EU summit.

Stock markets across Europe welcomed the calls for more strict regulations through EU treaty changes, rising overnight on Sarkozy's comments. The bond yield for Italy also continued to drop, an indication of improving investor confidence in that country's financial future.

Merkel reiterated her objection to so-called eurobonds, held jointly by all EU nations, telling Parliament that jointly backed government debt across the eurozone is no solution.

"The current discussion (about joint bonds) does not contribute to solving the crisis," Merkel said.

She also pushed back against charges that Germany, along with France, is trying to dominate the EU, singling out those nations whose governments have been forced to push through tough austerity measures and praising their efforts.

"I don't think we can imagine how much these people contribute so that the euro will be a lasting and stable currency," Merkel said. "I would like to express my absolute respect before these efforts, for that is a contribution to Europe's future."

She also rejected an idea floated this week, of taking advantage of a clause in the EU's constitution to allow the eurozone nations to enact their own treaties for governing the currency, underlining that any treaty changes must include 27 member states.

"We are going to Brussels with the goal of pushing through treaty changes, in order to avoid a spirit of division between the eurozone and non-eurozone members," Merkel said.

___

Associated Press Writers David Rising and Kirsten Grieshaber contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-02-EU-Europe-Financial-Crisis/id-bfadcefef6cf4c61bef17fd653a58156

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McCready: I'm fighting courts to protect my son

TAMPA, Fla.?? Country singer Mindy McCready, who had been reported missing, spoke with Florida authorities Wednesday and is aware of a court order to return her 5-year-old son by Thursday afternoon, police said.

Cape Coral Police Lt. Tony Sizemore said McCready and her son are not in the Lee County, Fla., area, and that she is "currently outside of the terms of her family court stipulation." She knows that she is supposed to bring her son back to Lee County by 5 p.m. Thursday, he said.

"The million dollar question is whether she will comply," said Sizemore.

The state Department of Children and Families said a missing person report was filed with Cape Coral police Tuesday night after McCready took her son Zander from her father's home.

McCready doesn't have custody of her son ? her mother does ? and the singer was allowed to visit the boy at her father's home, according to a department spokesman. On Tuesday, DCF discovered that McCready and the boy were not at her father's home.

DCF spokesman Terry Field told The Associated Press the agency asked a Lee County judge for an emergency pickup order, and the judge ruled McCready must return the boy voluntarily by 5 p.m. Thursday or risk an arrest warrant.

Meanwhile, McCready said on Facebook that she is not missing.

"I have been fighting the Florida court system to protect my son, and bring him home," she posted, adding that she spoke with Cape Coral Police via Skype ? something that the agency confirmed.

The singer's brother, Josh McCready, told The Associated Press in a private Facebook message that his sister was "fine."

"Mindy is fine and so is Zander. There is nothing to worry about," he wrote.

Kat Atwood, McCready's publicist, issued a statement Wednesday saying McCready and her son are "safe, healthy and comfortable," and denies that she has done anything wrong. The statement says McCready has been awaiting a court order on whether she would be awarded custody of her son.

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"No Amber Alert has been issued; this is not a missing child case," Atwood said in the statement.

According to Aimee McLaughlin of the Childrens Network of Southwest Florida, a case manager filed a missing person report with the Cape Coral Police on Tuesday. The DCF spokesman said Children's Network of Southwest Florida is the Community-Based Care agency for the area.

Since topping the country charts in the mid-1990s with her music, the troubled 36-year-old singer's life has been filled with domestic abuse, drug and DUI arrests and a suicide attempt. In August, she filed a libel suit in Palm Beach County against her own mother and the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., over a story published in the tabloid newspaper that quoted her mother.

In 2010, she spoke with The Associated Press about her life.

"It is a giant whirlwind of chaos all the time," she said. "I call my life a beautiful mess and organized chaos. It's just always been like that. My entire life, things have been attracted to me and vice versa that turn into chaotic nightmares or I create the chaos myself. I think that's really the life of a celebrity, of a big, huge, giant personality."

In July 2007, she was accused of scuffling with her mother and resisting arrest at her mother's home in Florida. She was sentenced to jail for 60 days for a probation violation and released; she served 30 days in jail. She also lost custody of her son.

And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a Nashville hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.

During the TV show "Celebrity Rehab 3" in 2010 McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, and host Dr. Drew Pinsky called her an angel in the season finale.

On the show she said she suffered from love addiction, not substance abuse. In one of the show's scarier moments, McCready suffered a seizure and was rushed to a hospital where scans showed brain damage.

Also in 2010, police went to McCready's mother's home for a report of an overdose, and McCready was taken to a Florida hospital. However, neither the hospital nor McCready's publicist would say why McCready was hospitalized.

Cape Coral is on Florida's Gulf coast, about 120 miles northwest of Miami.

McCready also fought the release of a tape in which she reportedly talked about former Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, with whom she had an affair as a teenager.

A call to a lawyer representing McCready in the custody case was not immediately returned.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45494644/ns/today-entertainment/

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Video: Inside Tim Pawlenty?s poor debate performances

October 30: Plouffe, roundtable

Nearly a year away from the 2012 election, we?ll talk to the president?s 2008 campaign manager, now White House Senior Adviser, David Plouffe. Then author of the definitive new biography on the late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson; Author of the new book ?The Time of Our Lives,? NBC News Special Correspondent, Tom Brokaw; Former Governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm; and Republican strategist, Mike Murphy.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/45514439#45514439

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POE&#39;S DEADLY DAUGHTERS: Cozy Pets

by Sheila Connolly

Recently a friend who writes cozies said that she had received a number of critical comments, both on panels and in blogs, about the pets who appear in cozies.

I recognize that cozies are kind of a middle child, often ignored in the greater mystery community, despite their continuing strong sales and the steady emergence of new writers with multi-book contracts from established publishers. Writers keep writing them, and readers keep buying them. Why the reading public and even some peers think that it is more worthy to write about violence and gore and destruction is beyond me. As far as I'm concerned, all mystery genres offer the reader a chance to escape the humdrum or even unpleasant realities of ordinary life, and give them a satisfying conclusion (which is often missing from ordinary life). It's only the details that vary, and there's room for everyone.

But to attack the pets in our books is hitting below the belt. Maybe a few of them are kind of odd, like the ones that claim to be psychic or solve crimes on their own, but most are ordinary non-verbal friends and companions to our characters.

What's wrong with that? Take a look at some statistics. The ASPCA reports that over 60% of American household have at least one pet. There are about 75 million dogs and 85 million cats in these households. The Humane Society adds that there is at least one dog in 39% of U.S. households (the average is two per owner), and at least one cat in 33% of households (the average is 2.2 per owner). The bottom line is, a majority of households, and?presumably most readers, have pets.

In fact, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2010 out of 117,538,000 households, only 60,384,000 or 51% included a married couple, so you could say that more households include a pet than a legal spouse.

Since pet ownership is something that many people share, a fictional pet should provide an immediate kinship for the reader. In addition, the character's relationship with that pet as defined by the writer can be a factor in establishing the character's, well, character. Villains kick dogs; heroes and heroines rescue them and take them home.

I'll concede that restless soldiers of fortune or wandering knights would have trouble caring for a pet. After all, if they don't have a fixed address, how can they take care of a companion animal? And we also need to recognize that animals possess varying temperaments as much as humans do, so the writer must be careful in pairing character to pet. I can't see Jack Reacher with a miniature Chihuahua, nor can I see Miss Marple with a Doberman or a pit bull. A cozy does not require a resident pet, but a pet does require a cozy: a small, settled town or neighborhood; a place where if the pet strays, someone will recognize it and return it to its proper owner.

I think a part of the puzzle is what readers want from a book. I see two broad categories: on one hand, you have the crash-bam-boom suspense/thrillers, where readers can be swept up in the breathless pace and at the end, heave a sigh of relief that it didn't happen to them; on the other hand, there are the cozies, with safe and recognizable settings, disturbed by a crime that sets the story in motion, until at the end order is restored. Two very different kinds of book, and different kinds of readers.

So, you grumpy mystery writers, don't sneer to us when we include "warm-and-fuzzy" friends in our books. We've got plenty of pet-loving readers.

Source: http://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/2011/12/cozy-pets.html

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iPhone 4S vs Galaxy Nexus: Which one should you get?

Phil Nickinson from Android Central has put together a monstrous iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy Nexus head-to-head comparison, complete with videos, pictures, uncanny insight, and everything else you’d expect from a Mobile Nations showdown. The bottom line seems to be, if you want a bigger screen (4.65...

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iPad vs. iPod touch vs. Kindle Fire: Which should you get?

Breaking down the pros and cons between Apple’s iPad 2 and iPod touch, and Amazon’s new Kindle Fire Trying to decide between an Apple iPad 2 or iPod touch and an Amazon Kindle, either for yourself or as a gift for someone else? There’s a lot to consider —...

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